1
00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:04,000
High voltage takes center stage
in this season of Hitachi

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:05,920
Energy's Power Pulse podcast.

3
00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:09,120
We promise to bring you great content
from the brightest minds in the business.

4
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,480
We'll discuss challenges, opportunities,
and all the hot topics

5
00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:14,160
any high voltage enthusiast

6
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,400
or anyone interested in sustainability
for that matter, is sure to enjoy.

7
00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:21,520
This episode of the podcast
is all about quality

8
00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:23,520
and to tell you about quality
in high voltage,

9
00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:26,520
we asked none other
than the head of quality on as a guest.

10
00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:30,000
He is Thomas Haas and will tell you
about how digitalization is

11
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,000
used as a tool to make high voltage safe
and reliable.

12
00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:37,040
Thomas holds a masters in Electrical
Engineering from the University of Aachen.

13
00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,280
He's worked in the power industry
for just about 30 years

14
00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:44,280
and is very passionate about all things
digital, especially the Digital Factory.

15
00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,120
But how digital can a factory
working with equipment,

16
00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,120
from heavy machinery
to small nuts and bolts, really be?

17
00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:51,600
You'll have to stay tuned to learn.

18
00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:55,520
Welcome back to Power Pulse.

19
00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:58,840
I'm your host, Sam Dash, and today
I'm speaking with Thomas

20
00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,080
Haas,
Head of Quality for High Voltage Products.

21
00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:03,600
Hi, Thomas.

22
00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:04,320
Hi, Sam.

23
00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:06,720
And thanks for the invitation. It's
great to be here.

24
00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:07,680
You're very welcome.

25
00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:08,720
Glad to have you.

26
00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:12,640
Thomas, you've been at Hitachi Energy
for close to three decades.

27
00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,120
That right? That's about right.

28
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:16,240
Yes, absolutely.

29
00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:19,240
So when you reflect back,
how would you describe yourself

30
00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:23,040
when you first entered the company,
what your passions or anxieties were

31
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:26,040
and then how do you compare that to now?

32
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,960
I mean, I was a young engineer
who was invited by a management member

33
00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:35,040
from ABB at that time to come
to the first interview and then join.

34
00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:39,480
And yes, I liked it and I was just curious
about everything to come.

35
00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:42,480
And for those of us
who don't know the history

36
00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,960
of Hitachi Energy,
can you say more about ABB?

37
00:01:45,960 --> 00:01:48,720
Can you talk us through a bit of that
history? Absolutely.

38
00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:54,640
When I joined ABB at that time in Germany,
by the way, ABB as such has been formed

39
00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:59,280
out of two companies
from Boveri Company and Swedish ASEA.

40
00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,520
And these two together formed the ABB
that was in 88.

41
00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:04,880
Now I joined seven years later.

42
00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:09,720
Then after many years,
there was the split into the energy

43
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:15,120
sector of ABB – energy product related
and the automation sector.

44
00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,720
And then ABB decided
to divest the energy portion.

45
00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,000
And that's what became Hitachi Energy-
What became

46
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,920
Hitachi Energy,
fully owned by the global Hitachi Company.

47
00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:27,200
Yeah, yeah.

48
00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:28,680
Thanks for talking us
through that history.

49
00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:30,160
That's really helpful.

50
00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,920
Oh, we haven't had anyone contextualize
that yet for us.

51
00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:37,480
How does your particular working knowledge
affect your daily life outside of work?

52
00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,520
Are you hyper aware of quality control

53
00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:44,480
on a daily basis
at home with appliances or vehicles?

54
00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:47,920
Well, I wouldn't say too much in this way.

55
00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:51,360
I mean, I have remained an engineer
at heart.

56
00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:51,640
Yeah.

57
00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:54,880
Right, so I'm interested in everything
that works.

58
00:02:55,200 --> 00:03:00,720
A machine that works, controlled
by electronics, by digital mechanisms.

59
00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:06,200
And of course, it needs a certain quality,
because I can become curious

60
00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,360
if things stop working
as they are supposed to do.

61
00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:12,120
So that is with my car and my TV.

62
00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:14,680
I don't need a new one every day.

63
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,680
I would like
something that lasts for a while.

64
00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:22,000
So I feel like, maybe after this podcast,
I should get your contact info

65
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,520
and give you a call whenever I need to buy
a new TV or a new appliance because I'm

66
00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:32,120
sure that you do some really good research
into what the best option is.

67
00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:34,040
Maybe, but not always.

68
00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:34,360
Yeah.

69
00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,120
I'm still also one of those
who get what appeals me.

70
00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,400
Yeah. So let's get more into high voltage.

71
00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:45,720
I want to understand just how digitized
a high voltage setting is.

72
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,000
We've learned
about how parts get made and assembled,

73
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,600
and we've also learned
how a factory is set up.

74
00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:54,280
Can you explain this digitalization

75
00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,560
process at high voltage in layman's terms?

76
00:03:58,080 --> 00:03:59,160
Yeah, if you want.

77
00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:02,520
Digitalization starts with introducing

78
00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:06,720
a so-called enterprise resource
planning tool.

79
00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,920
I should not name a brand name,
most probably, but there is some worldwide

80
00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:15,200
known software
which is used in many areas to control

81
00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:19,800
all manufacturing processes and all the
material handling in the factories.

82
00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:20,680
Right.

83
00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:24,880
This we have been using in our company
for decades also as well.

84
00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:30,160
I grew with these systems, which basically
take care that all your products

85
00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,600
follow a certain work step,
a certain work flow

86
00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:39,320
that you have feel of materials,
which materials go into your product,

87
00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,120
and that all these materials
need to be purchased from suppliers,

88
00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:46,600
from other companies
or other units in our own company?

89
00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:47,320
Yeah.

90
00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,880
And yeah, these parts
need to be taken into the system,

91
00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:53,880
into the factory,
but they also need to be registered.

92
00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:59,160
So we would like to know at any time
how much or how many of which product

93
00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:03,280
are in our warehouse
in a specific box on a specific pallet.

94
00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,080
And this is why we need to register
what comes in and,

95
00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:11,520
and increase the counter of the parts
which are in a certain box,

96
00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:15,200
and reduce that counter
once we consume out of this box.

97
00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:19,120
And in very simple terms,
I'm sure it's more complex than this;

98
00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:24,400
is it something similar to how we use
barcodes at a store or in the supermarket?

99
00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:26,040
Yeah, and now comes the point.

100
00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:26,760
And that is about

101
00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:31,240
what is now changing over time
and what we have now developed further.

102
00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,600
The managing of inflow
and outflow of material and counting

103
00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:37,200
is something that can be done

104
00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:40,920
with the delivery sheets
or with the purchase order of figures.

105
00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:42,120
What we want to know.

106
00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:45,520
We want to know more about each
and every individual product,

107
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,800
especially when it comes
to really critical parts

108
00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,880
that really define
the performance of our products.

109
00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:56,880
Can you give us an example of what
those critical parts are for a given piece

110
00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:00,360
of machinery or equipment
that you're wanting to keep track of more?

111
00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:04,240
Yeah, I'm sure that you have introduced
in some of the earlier episodes

112
00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:05,880
some of our products,

113
00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:09,240
and you may have come across
the commonality about all high

114
00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,640
voltage products
is that we need to insulate voltages,

115
00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:17,760
so we need to put insulating material
between two poles of voltage.

116
00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:21,600
And I would like to take the example
of a disc space insulator

117
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:27,040
or disc spacer or disc insulator,
which is made from an epoxy cast.

118
00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:27,880
Yeah.

119
00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:31,080
This is a highly matured
or highly developed

120
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:34,080
and specific component of our products,

121
00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:37,520
and it needs a very decent quality control

122
00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:42,120
during mixing, during pouring
and casting it into the final product.

123
00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:43,640
That epoxy.

124
00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:44,400
Exactly.

125
00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:48,880
It's a bit like, you can compare it
with cookies where you have a dough.

126
00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,040
Yeah. A kilogram of whatever put together.

127
00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:55,520
You have a block of dough and then
you make a lot of cookies out of it.

128
00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:58,800
But you want to be careful
that you're not trying to make that dough

129
00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,760
that has butter, which has a melting point
at too high of a temperature.

130
00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:03,760
Or you want to make sure

131
00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:08,280
not to put that dough maybe in the freezer
right before you're going to bake it.

132
00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:08,640
Right.

133
00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,920
So all of this depends on temperatures
and conditions. Yes.

134
00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:14,960
And then the first thing is that we
of course,

135
00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:18,000
in our own factory,
we have a factory to produce that part.

136
00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:20,560
First of all,
we have all the controls in place

137
00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:23,560
to make sure that we have the best quality
you can think of.

138
00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:29,240
And it has happened that we deliver
a batch of these disc insulators.

139
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:30,960
It's like a batch of cookies. Yeah.

140
00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:35,000
The entire number of pieces
that are made from one mixture

141
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,480
of this epoxy, for example,
till reached our final assembly factory.

142
00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:42,760
Then maybe we find one of the occasional
cases,

143
00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:47,640
that one of these pieces
has not been ideally or perfectly cast.

144
00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:52,760
Maybe it has a little air bubble inside
or some impurity of the raw materials.

145
00:07:53,160 --> 00:07:57,840
For whatever reason, there's just some
percentage of error that is unavoidable.

146
00:07:57,840 --> 00:07:59,200
That right? Yes. Yes.

147
00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:02,640
And then we would step in
with our new ideas and say, okay,

148
00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:06,600
now we need to identify exactly
the one that has this issue.

149
00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:09,000
It has a serial number.

150
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:14,120
But we would like to know, are there
any brothers and sisters of this product.

151
00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:18,120
Which means other components which came
from the same batch of raw material.

152
00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:18,720
Right.

153
00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:20,440
Which may be at risk.

154
00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:22,440
And this is where we step in now.

155
00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:27,280
Having each and every of these insulators
marked with a dedicated serial number

156
00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:30,840
means they are all identifiable.

157
00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:33,720
All we have on stock,
maybe several hundred.

158
00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,320
We can exactly tell
which is which, and from where it comes,

159
00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:40,520
when it was produced, and which others

160
00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:44,280
had been produced at the same time
from the same batch of material.

161
00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:50,280
It reminds me of looking closely at DNA,
what the make up is of a larger entity,

162
00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:54,280
by looking at very specific chromosomes
that tell you how something is

163
00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:57,000
made up, what that recipe is. Yeah,
and that's the point.

164
00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,480
You can also hear a bit,
you brought the analogy of a supermarket.

165
00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:00,960
Yeah.

166
00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:04,920
And we all know in the supermarket
the parts have their barcode

167
00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,280
which identify the material.

168
00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:10,640
So the barcode contains a material number.

169
00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:13,880
And this material number in a computer
is linked to a price.

170
00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:17,080
And then they scan it
and the computer knows the price of it.

171
00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:17,760
Right.

172
00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:21,000
Now we would like to know
even a bit more on our product.

173
00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:23,160
We want to know which product is it

174
00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:27,320
or which type of disc spacer
or disc insulator, for example.

175
00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:29,760
We would like to know who manufactured it.

176
00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:32,520
We may have several, several suppliers.
Yeah.

177
00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:35,280
We want to know when it was produced.

178
00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:40,200
So this is why we created something that
is like the barcode in the supermarket.

179
00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:42,440
it’s a matrix code. Indeed.

180
00:09:42,440 --> 00:09:46,200
It looks a bit like the QR code
people know from their mobile phones.

181
00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:49,040
Yeah.
And that contains a bit more information.

182
00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:51,240
It contains supplier of a part.

183
00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:53,640
It contains the manufacturing date.

184
00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:58,440
It contains the serial number
which exactly identifies which is which.

185
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:03,480
And that is our basic feature
that we need later to identify material

186
00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:09,040
to relate it to neighbors, to capture it
and to do and to work with it later.

187
00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:12,840
And also, I would assume,
to make sure you are constantly

188
00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:17,040
trying to evolve these materials
and make sure they improve.

189
00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:19,600
Absolutely. I mean, it's all about data.

190
00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:20,120
Yeah.

191
00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:22,920
Once you come across an issue or a failure

192
00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:25,920
of a component,
you would want this to be registered.

193
00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:27,320
You would want this incident

194
00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:30,640
to be registered to the material code,
to the manufacturer,

195
00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:35,080
to be able to aggregate,
to do analytics on this data,

196
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:39,560
to find out, like a Pareto,
what is the biggest contributor to issues.

197
00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:40,760
And these are tackled first.

198
00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,280
I mean it's not about the analytics.

199
00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:45,200
It's not a goal as such.

200
00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:47,000
It's just to guide a bit.

201
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:51,520
Where would you hook in and do your next
innovation project or improvement project?

202
00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,080
Right,
it provides a foundation? Absolutely.

203
00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:55,160
Yes, yes.

204
00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:58,320
So it's safe to say
your factory is digitized.

205
00:10:58,560 --> 00:11:02,040
Does this mean that every single item in
it can be tracked from the moment

206
00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:02,760
it gets there?

207
00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,880
And is this true for most production
these days, not just at high voltage?

208
00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:10,280
Well,
I introduced the disc insulator. Yeah.

209
00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:14,120
There are also other parts
which we don't track individually.

210
00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:16,200
I see Like nuts and bolts, for example.

211
00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:20,000
You get a box of nuts and bolts and
they don't have individual serial numbers.

212
00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:23,040
And is the hope
that you will start to track those items.

213
00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:28,280
Well, some is really not needed
because their design is not decisive

214
00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:32,280
of the final functionality, or–
They're not as key to the efficacy

215
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:33,360
of the larger whole.

216
00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:37,560
Yeah, because maybe they have
so much safety factor where they are

217
00:11:37,560 --> 00:11:41,160
used that in the full tolerance range
that they could

218
00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:44,160
be, they cannot create an issue.

219
00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:45,920
Right. Right. That makes sense.

220
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:49,920
So and this is why, we have material
that is only counted.

221
00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:52,320
So how much of this do we have on stock.

222
00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:54,000
And there is this material

223
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:55,160
which we are focusing on

224
00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:59,000
now where we really want to know
what is the exact identification,

225
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:03,480
what is the exact detail of what
we have on stock in order to really track

226
00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:06,840
and trace it back
to their manufacturing process.

227
00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:10,320
In this industry,
with its very stringent safety measures,

228
00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:13,360
I'd hope faulty products
don't occur very frequently.

229
00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:15,320
I'm sure we would all hope that.

230
00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:20,320
But if this were to happen, how quickly
can something be traced back and fixed?

231
00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:23,680
Yeah, that's a bit coming
back to what I said before.

232
00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:29,080
We have the possibility, once
we identify a part that has had an issue.

233
00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:31,560
Yeah. As you said,
hopefully not too many. Yeah. Right.

234
00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:35,800
And we can associate it
to a production time

235
00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:38,920
or to a production batch
and then on a fingertip,

236
00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:42,960
find all the other serial numbers
that belong to the same batch.

237
00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:45,440
And that's what is tracking and tracing.

238
00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:51,000
So first we track what is faulty and
what are the others that might be at risk.

239
00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:54,360
And then we trace
where did the others end up.

240
00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,000
And so in your experience,
what is the sort of range of time

241
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:02,520
that a process like that can take
when it's an easier problem to fix?

242
00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,200
How long does that generally take?

243
00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:07,520
Now in this digital
world it takes five seconds

244
00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:09,520
And that’s across the

245
00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:13,520
board, even if it's a very complex, faulty
component, you can do it that quickly?

246
00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:18,000
Yeah, because it's a database behind
and you can say, give me all components

247
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,520
from the same batch and the database
spits it out, if you like.

248
00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:25,800
And what if it's a component
that hasn't been digitalized yet?

249
00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:29,480
You would take the elevator or the lift,
go to the archive,

250
00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:36,120
find the right binder,
do your thumb cinema and try to find

251
00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:40,680
all the other test reports that belong
to the same batch, and then identify

252
00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,960
what might be the other components,
which we also have to withdraw.

253
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,840
Yeah. So it could take quite a bit longer.

254
00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:49,800
It could take weeks. Yeah. Right.

255
00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:53,560
And in my experience
I have had experience like this

256
00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:56,720
where we had an issue on the customer side

257
00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,240
and we had to identify
which other products are at risk.

258
00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,480
And it took us really weeks
just to find out

259
00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:07,480
which are these other products
and where in the world are they installed.

260
00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:08,480
Right.

261
00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:10,040
This is, I think, a good opportunity

262
00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:13,800
for me to ask you about what
a Digital Passport is. Yes.

263
00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:16,680
So I've heard the term
used, Digital Passport.

264
00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:19,200
What exactly is that and how does it work.

265
00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:22,320
You know, just consider
that these very critical parts

266
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:25,720
have a passport like our travel passport.

267
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:28,800
Right. That is a data record.

268
00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:30,000
It's not a piece of paper.

269
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:34,680
It's a record stored in a database
that identifies the part,

270
00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:39,760
like our name and our number
on our travel passport identify us.

271
00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:45,480
It may also contain a couple of attributes
like, color of eyes or my height.

272
00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:46,360
Yeah. Right.

273
00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:50,440
And it may also collect events
during lifetime,

274
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:55,920
like visas, or stamps, travel stamps
when you use your travel passport.

275
00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:56,200
Yeah, right.

276
00:14:56,200 --> 00:15:00,000
So basically this data record accompanies

277
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,400
the product like a digital twin a bit
if you like.

278
00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:05,920
Accompanies through the entire lifetime.

279
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,960
Sort of like an ID card
that you're always holding in your pocket.

280
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:10,320
Yeah.

281
00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:13,080
From the moment
you're created to the moment

282
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:14,720
you pass on.

283
00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:17,600
Yes. And you can link it –
the Digital Passport System

284
00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:21,840
is an add on,
if you like, or complementary to what

285
00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:25,240
I introduced at the beginning,
the enterprise resource planning,

286
00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:31,480
because we still go by the main
requirement single source of truth.

287
00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,760
So each and every information
should only be stored at one single point.

288
00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:40,520
So we have a bill of material that remains
in the production planning tool.

289
00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:41,240
Yeah.

290
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,960
But we have now this individual
tracking and tracing information

291
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,760
for all the quality data
we collect during assembly.

292
00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:50,880
We make a measurement somewhere.

293
00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:53,560
We see, does a product do its job?

294
00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:54,480
Is it fast enough?

295
00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:58,320
For example, the circuit breaker,
is the opening closing fast enough?

296
00:15:58,440 --> 00:15:59,720
We may measure this.

297
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:04,440
And by capturing all this measurement data
in this Digital Passport

298
00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:08,520
close to the product,
we can compare it to their siblings.

299
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:10,800
We can identify.

300
00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,680
The simple thing
is, is a certain measurement

301
00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:16,680
inside or outside of the tolerance band.

302
00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:17,640
That's the usual.

303
00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:19,680
And you get a yes/no decision,

304
00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:23,080
which may allow you to move on
or hinder you from moving on.

305
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:27,200
But you could also see
am I trending in a negative direction?

306
00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:30,800
Maybe it’s still good,
but I'm already trending

307
00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:34,160
in a direction that is not good
if it continues like this.

308
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:35,080
Right, yeah.

309
00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,880
So I imagine you have to be
very aware of patterns that may occur.

310
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:40,840
Absolutely. But you need the data.

311
00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:42,720
Yeah. Like with the cookies. Yeah.

312
00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:43,920
They may be still good.

313
00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:47,080
But you see
they are becoming browner and browner.

314
00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:49,800
And at some point of time
they will be burnt– So...

315
00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:51,520
If you don't control it. Right.

316
00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:53,720
And if you don't intervene.
Absolutely. Yeah.

317
00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:56,880
So how much of that intervention is

318
00:16:56,880 --> 00:17:00,000
digital is left to a digital world or AI?

319
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,320
And how much of that is human intervention
at this point?

320
00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,400
I would say at this point of time,
we collect a lot of data

321
00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:11,280
and then we make downloads
and work with it, with analysis tools.

322
00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:14,440
But we are just
at the beginning of a journey,

323
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:18,000
and that may include more and more
also artificial intelligence.

324
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:18,560
Right.

325
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:21,680
That we see the patterns in the recorded

326
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:24,680
data, maybe with self-learning methods,

327
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:28,760
maybe identified
as going into the wrong direction.

328
00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:29,520
Yeah.

329
00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:33,240
So we may find out,
or the machine may at some point of time

330
00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,640
have better means to find out
little deviations

331
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:41,280
than our operators have that compare
one data with the other., right.

332
00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:41,640
Right.

333
00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,680
It's hard to know at this point
which will be more effective.

334
00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:45,360
Is that right?

335
00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:46,360
We don't know.

336
00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:50,760
But we know, example applications
in other areas which we are now

337
00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:55,560
looking at and see, where can we start,
where can we set pilots.

338
00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,880
And that's a super exciting journey
because it opens up

339
00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:04,920
absolutely new possibilities to be earlier
in the entire case,

340
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:07,960
to not clean up
after something has happened, but

341
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:11,960
to identify issues
before they reach a customer.

342
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:13,720
To avoid– Yeah.

343
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:16,280
–catastrophe or mistake or... Absolutely.

344
00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:21,480
Because whatever we find in our factory,
the repair of it is much more convenient

345
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:25,160
and cheaper than if we have to do it
at a customer side.

346
00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:25,680
Yeah.

347
00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:30,000
And before it's maybe had any interface
with people and the public.

348
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,160
Absolutely.

349
00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,840
You've already touched on this
a little bit just now, but

350
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,840
why is it so relevant to go fully digital?

351
00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:39,840
And are there any downsides
we need to be wary of?

352
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,280
Are there things
that should not be digitized in your mind?

353
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,920
First of all, it's speed and data
consistency.

354
00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:48,320
Speed is obvious.

355
00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:51,960
We talked about it,
how fast you can get relations

356
00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:54,960
to other components
to other material, for example.

357
00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:59,400
Consistency is about
whatever is linked digitally

358
00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:04,080
and like a measurement device
that uploads the measured data digitally.

359
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:06,080
You don't do typos.

360
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:06,720
Right.

361
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,120
Though,
rather than typing what you measure

362
00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:12,120
with a ruler,
you type in the measurement value.

363
00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:16,640
But if that ruler has a digital interface,
that cannot be lost.

364
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:18,880
So that's data integrity.

365
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:21,880
But of course, you name it –
is there a risk?

366
00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:23,000
Yes, of course.

367
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:27,560
Big data always has a certain risk
if it falls into the wrong hands.

368
00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:32,320
Or if there is an opportunity
to step in and manipulate.

369
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,040
Right,
because it is important to be trusted

370
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:41,320
and to have trust in the data
collected, is not manipulated, is really

371
00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:45,640
the true unmanipulated data– Is factual
and not sort of– Absolutely, yes.

372
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:46,320
Yeah.

373
00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:49,560
And– Is not sort of laden with bias.

374
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:49,880
Yeah.

375
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:53,280
And of course, we don't want
to disclose to our competition

376
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:57,960
if we have had issues with our engineering
drawings and, and, and so on.

377
00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,920
There's a certain level of privacy
you want to maintain. Absolutely.

378
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,960
And this is why we put a lot of effort
on using industry

379
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:09,080
standard basic tools
like the database in the cloud.

380
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:13,880
But, with the best technology behind
and with the best in class suppliers

381
00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:19,280
that guarantee intrusion protection
and all this cybersecurity activities

382
00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:22,560
so that we don't have to invest
and develop this our own.

383
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:26,040
But there we hop on and work with partners
who know better.

384
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:26,680
Yeah.

385
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:31,240
And so if you were to give us a takeaway
on why you feel that

386
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:35,680
Digital Passports are important for us,
across the world, across the board,

387
00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:39,240
what would your simple way of telling us
about why they're important?

388
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:40,880
That's a good question.

389
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:45,000
Often I hear this question,
why do our customers need our Digital

390
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,080
Passports?

391
00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:48,880
My answer is our customers
need reliable products.

392
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:51,000
They want to sleep well.

393
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:54,000
They want products
that don't cause trouble.

394
00:20:54,440 --> 00:21:00,000
And the Digital Passport is a tool
for us to improve quality,

395
00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:04,560
to get feedback for new development,
for improvement of products

396
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:10,080
and by this, make sure that we can offer
the best reliable products.

397
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:13,320
So it's not about disclosing all the data

398
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:16,800
to our customers
because we use it, we improve,

399
00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:20,040
but we are sure that we can react faster

400
00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:23,040
on issues that the customer might have.

401
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:27,360
We can do better for our product
development and so on and so forth.

402
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,600
So it sort of sounds to me and correct me
if I'm wrong as though

403
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,000
the Digital Passport really provides
more support to the consumer.

404
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,240
Is that right?

405
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:36,480
Yeah.

406
00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,480
First of all, to us as a producer,

407
00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:44,880
to make better products and to be faster
in case help is needed.

408
00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,000
Yeah, yeah. We have some side effects.

409
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,960
You can download the product documentation
from this system.

410
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,240
So there are few benefits
also for customers.

411
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:54,760
Right.

412
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:59,400
But basically it's
for us to be a trusted quality provider.

413
00:21:59,440 --> 00:21:59,760
Right.

414
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:05,480
To be recognized as a quality leader
and also be transparent and demonstrate

415
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:09,280
we can show you all data
through the production process.

416
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:12,440
We don't hand it out
because it's also sensitive.

417
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:14,080
Right. But we are transparent.

418
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:15,120
You can see it

419
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:18,960
and you can trust that we work with it
and that we work on improvements.

420
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:21,840
Right.
There's transparency within the company.

421
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,400
And then that has a onward
effect to the consumer and the client.

422
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:26,240
Exactly, yes. Yeah.

423
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:26,880
Yeah.

424
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:29,440
Thomas,
thanks so much for joining us today.

425
00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:32,680
You’ve really helped us understand the ins
and outs of maintaining quality

426
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:34,600
standards at various stages in high

427
00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:38,120
voltage products,
and how this process continues to evolve.

428
00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:40,880
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of
Power Pulse.

429
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:41,760
Until next time.

430
00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:43,920
And that's it for today.

431
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:46,240
We'll be back soon
with some more great content.

432
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,440
But before you go,
remember to give us a follow

433
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,000
so you don't miss an episode.

434
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,320
Thanks for tuning in. See you soon!

435
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:55,200
This episode was brought to you by Hitachi
Energy.

436
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,040
Created
and introduced by Bárbara Freitas-Daniels.

437
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:00,480
Content and script
writing by Cassandra Inay.

438
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:02,280
Guest speaker, Thomas Haas.

439
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:03,960
Hosted by Sam Dash.

440
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:05,920
Produced and edited by Creative Chimps.